Autonomics for Chronic Illness

01- SAN RAFAEL

In the spring of 2024, Bob Naviaux, who runs the mitochondrial cell laboratory at the University of California San Diego introduced me to Dr. Eric Gordon, a functional medicine doctor who specializes in treating complex chronic illness. Bob, who is one of the world’s leading practitioners of mitochondrial medicine made this introduction after a long conversation we had about the role of autonomic physiology in the origin and progression of chronic illness. Over the last several years, he had been writing about a phenomenon called the Cell Danger Response, a kind of localized cellular response in the body that in many ways mimics autonomic danger responses that happen systemically. In this response, cells at the site of an injury or wound begin dumping Adenosine Triphosphate (ATP) which is ordinarily used as their primary fuel, into the extra-cellular matrix, where it becomes toxic.

Mitochondria

Mitochondria are our cellular engines. Once upon a time, these tiny organelles were other organisms entirely: several billion years ago early single-celled eukaryotic creatures developed a symbiotic relationship with them that has led to one of the most enduring marriages fundamental to the flourishing of life. The cells provided an ideal home for the mitochondria; in exchange the mitochondria power our cells. These tiny engines run on ATP, which is a primary energy currency for metabolic processes, powering the contraction of muscles, the propagation of nerve impulses, and various kinds of chemical synthesis.

The Cell Danger Response that Bob has noted and studied is perplexing, because when it happens cells take this precious fuel and start dumping it overboard. Intriguingly, outside of the context of the cell, this fuel is toxic, and one of the strange effects of this now extra-cellular ATP (e-ATP) is that it creates a sort of local rogue island around the site of injury that becomes unresponsive to signals of safety from the Central Nervous System.

When he told me this story for the first time, I imagined a motorboat and cans of gasoline. I know this is probably not a perfect analogy, but I remember filling outboard boat motors as a kid, and that if you were not careful, sometimes an irridescent sheen of gas would dribble out of the motor and end up on the water. I always felt slightly sick when this happened. Inside the motor, the fuel would power the engine. Outside of the motor, the fuel would poison the water. For whatever reason, when Bob explained the response to me, this is what I thought of. We are mostly water; more than 70%. Our body is in many ways an inward ocean, and I could see how this response would diffuse into a local area in the body, spreading away from the injured site.

I have spent the past 30 years studying the human nervous system, and the past fifteen focused exclusively on developing a new living model of autonomic physiology called Autonomics. As Bob described the Cell Danger Response, I felt the hair on my arms begin to stand up. It was as though he was describing a tiny fractal of processes of autonomic physiology I had been studying, writing about, and working with clinically for years. A fractal is a mathematical figure that is similar at varying levels of scale. Even if you’ve never heard this word, you know what a fractal is. Have you ever looked closely at the pattern of run-off from a puddle? And then have you ever been in an airplane and looked down at a river delta from altitude? They create the same patterns. Nature speaks in a pattern language, and the patterns hold true at different scales, from the minute to the immense. The branching of certain trees has the same structure as the branching of the vascular system in your body; the spiral of a chambered nautilus maps to the geometry of a sunflower which can also be found in the shape of the swirling arm of a galaxy. As Bob described the response I found myself once again in awe of the majesty and mystery of the human body.

The Autonomic Nervous System in the body works in ways similar to the Cell Danger Response. When we are in a salugenic, or health-creating state, the Autonomic Nervous System orchestrates a profound harmonization of our three primary autonomic systems coordinated around the rhythmic pulse of safety, producing the deep neural foundations of wellbeing. But if the Autonomic Nervous System gets shifted into enduring danger or lifethreat responses, and is unable to shift out of them, there are clear and repeatable neurobiological sequelae of this shift that resemble the Cell Danger Response. Absent the coordinating pulse of safety, autonomic systems stop functioning, or go rogue. Digestion stops working properly, and food that before nourished us can become toxic, just like the ATP. As this process unfolds, the immune system gets involved, pathogens are no longer deflected, co-occuring infections flare, and on and on, creating the conditions for complex chronic illness.